Powerco Acting Network Operations Manager Dean Stevenson said because of the settles weather today the company had been able to get helicopters to survey damage and access remote areas of the network.

Currently around 2000 properties were still without power.

"We expect to get the majority of customers back on by the end of the day barring further severe weather and will also look to get generators out to customers in some of the remote areas where repairs are likely to take several days," Mr Stevenson said.

Main highways in the South Island have been disrupted by the snow fall. State Highway 94 from Te Anau to Milford Sound, State Highway 85 from Kyeburn to Palmerston, State Highway 1 from Dunedin to Waitati and State Highway 87 from Outram to Middlemarch remain closed.

The Interislander ferries have not been disrupted and flights in and out of major airports in the South Island continue as normal.

Snow fell to sea level from Invercargill to Dunedin overnight and was the first major snowfall of the season.

Schools closed as snow blankets Otago

Several schools in Dunedin have closed and many others have delayed opening until 10am.

Otago Boys' High School, Otago Girls' High School, Logan Park High School, St Hilda's Collegiate and Kavanagh College are all closed.

Bayfield High School, Kaikorai Valley College, John McGlashan College, Kings and Queens high schools and Columba College have delayed 10am starts.

All primary and intermediate schools and kindergartens between Mosgiel to Port Chalmers to Waikouaiti have a delayed start today and will open at 10am.

The Dunedin City Council said bus services had been suspended on all hill and southern routes.

The Queenstown District Council said all roads were affected by snow. The Crown Range is closed and all other main routes are open but chains are needed on roads where snowploughs are yet to reach.

Close call with shipping container

A woman was almost crushed by a toppled shipping container in Dunedin on Saturday as wind gusts of up to 120km/h wreaked havoc in the south.

Ploni White was helping take items out of her family's container when a gust ripped through Ravensbourne, Dunedin, with such force a nearby container began to fall towards her. "It missed me by inches," she said.

She crawled from behind the wreckage to find her granddaughter sitting in her pram - unscathed - nearby.

"If it had fallen any other way, we both could have been squashed."

The storm brought strong winds and heavy rain to Dunedin and temperatures plunged 10C within minutes from a high of 17C.

Emergency services were inundated with calls to downed power lines and damaged poles, while power authorities scrambled to restore electricity to 1790 Dunedin consumers.